The Sanctuary
by r.m.t.b
Summary: An incident with friends at a sleepover causes sixteen-year-old Sasha to consider that her house may be haunted. With her parents away on a business trip, she becomes more anxious each day. Sasha soon realizes that her empty childhood home is harboring spirits only she can see – dead characters from her favorite book trapped between her world, their world…and heaven. SB/OC RL/OC


**The Sanctuary **

**Chapter 1: Darkness**

_Warning: a couple of swear words, romance, some mature situations, but this is mostly a bit of fun really, not as heavy as some other stuff I've written. Enjoy!_

"_**There's a story in the Buddhist culture**_

_**That speaks of a man who cared only for himself**_

_**He suffered in hell among slanderers, without hope and without faith.**_

_**In contrast to his misfortune,**_

_**Shakyamuni stood on the edge of a lotus pond in paradise, **_

_**And below the pond,**_

_**Resided hell.**_

_**Shakyamuni looked down into hell at the man among the masses,**_

_**And looked into his past**_

_**It recalled a time when the man had spared a spider's life**_

_**And so Shakyamuni threaded down a spider's thread to relieve the man from hell on behalf of his good deed.**_

_**Upon doing so, the man began to realise that other hell-dwellers had begun to climb the thread**_

_**And so he called,**_

"_**Do not climb the thread, for it is mine and mine alone!"**_

_**And so the thread snapped**_

_**Because he lacked compassion**_

_**And empathy**_

_**And he did not care for the others**_

_**But only for himself**_

_**And so he fell right back down into hell again, and vanished among the flames—**_

"—and so unless you want a spider's thread to wrap you up and toss you into the depths of hell, you better be a moral fucking citizen. The End."

In the middle of a bedroom, three teenage girls sat lazily among several pillows underneath bed covers and duvets which had been used to build a make-shift fort. All three of the girls were clad in pyjamas with empty hot chocolate mugs in their hands, and as the taller girl concluded her story, her companions looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

"Oh please Sasha," The shorter girl with black hair and green eyes replied with a groan, "That wasn't a horror story. That was _poetry_."

"It wasn't poetry!" The girl who'd told the tale insisted. "You asked me to tell you a horror story and I couldn't think of anything else - unless you wanted a stereotypical slasher cliché, but that would've been unoriginal!"

"At least that would have had blood," The third girl spoke up, pushing away her braided hair with a smirk, "Hell isn't even scary, it's not even real."

"I never said it would be scary, Daisy, I said it would be interesting, or unusual at least." Sasha replied, beginning to flick through the pages of the book she'd been reading from beneath the glow of the book lamp. Unlike the other girls, Sasha had her legs securely glued to her chest to give the other two room as they lay with their arms spread and their legs comfortably crossed over one another. Sasha sighed a little in exasperation – it was bad enough feeling out of place with her height at school without having to curl herself into a ball in her own _house._

"Okay, so what _was_ the meaning of that un-horror story, Miss. Narrator?" Daisy inquired, glancing at the book cover titled _Tales of Torment_. Sasha paused, looking thoughtful.

"It means that you should always save the ones who need saving. It was a metaphor."

"Whatever it was, it wasn't scary. And I'm up for a _real_ horror story!" The other girl beamed, her green eyes glimmering with brimming mischief as she dismissed the taller girl's explanation.

"Lola, it's not like it's Halloween, and besides you hate getting scared. You end up wetting the bed, remember?" Sasha teased the girl playfully which resulted in a a not-so-playful pillow being thrown at her head, making her chuckle.

"Oh please! I don't _hate _getting scared," Lola complained, pouting, "In fact, I actually love to get scared. I just hate the aftermath."

"The aftermath being the nightmares and wet sheets, right?" Daisy inquired, making Sasha cackle in response. Lola just gave the girl opposite her a playful punch before hugging her pillow to her chest as they laughed, her nimble fingers entwining.

"You guys are so mean to me, honestly. Thought you were my friends…" Lola complained, voice full of melo-drama.

"Here we go again with the 'no-one-loves-me' speech! Ooooh, and let us not forget the unconvincing bottom lip!" Sasha exclaimed, gripping the girl in a tight hug.

"I'm playing a small violin for you, m'dear…" Daisy added, toppling on top of the girl in a suffocating hug which made them all laugh. Sasha managed to escape from the tornado of pillows and glanced warmly at her two friends with an absent smile on her lips.

It was the last day of August. The bedroom windows were open and the cream curtains with the floral prints dotted across the fabric danced slowly in the wind. There was a desk lamp which resided on a mahogany table directly below two sets of crammed bookshelves threatening to give anyone a concussion if they were to fall, and opposite the desk was a single bed with the same floral pattern on the blankets as the curtains. Pillows lay strewn across it along with various Cola cans and junk food wrappers, as well as three large pizza boxes that were still hot, but empty. The room itself could easily be identified as a hide-out for a girl with a love for books, since as well as there being various bookshelves across the walls there were also piles of books stacked on top of each other in boxes under the bed and desk. Everything else was meticulously clean, making the cluttered novels look that much more chaotic in the midsts of such tidy, pink and green scenery. There were a couple of clothes folded across the desk chair with a backpack next to it which looked crammed to the brim with books and pens, but it seemed school had gone unnoticed to the three go-happy girls through-out the majority of the summer, and now the three of them enjoyed the final week of the holidays with a sleepover.

When one of the pillows had begun to shed feathers, Daisy and Lola laid side-by-side next to Sasha and looked up at the top of the fort with lopsided smiles and red cheeks, chests rising and lowering in tune to their hearts as a result of the wrestle.

"I can't believe we only have one week left until school," Daisy began, her breathing heavy, "but I'm glad we did this. Feels like we've not done this in ages."

"That's because we haven't," Sasha said, laughing, "You two decided to jet off for the summer and leave me here."

"We're back now," Daisy reminded.

"Yeah, and I offered to pack you in my suitcase, but you just weren't having any of it." Lola smirked.

"What did you even do besides read _Harry Potter _all day and reblog pictures all night?" Sasha gave a mock gasp of utter shock at the inquisitive Daisy.

"And, um, what's wrong with _Harry Potter_ exactly? Tread carefully Dais, this is my house you know…" Sasha warned, with a tone of mock-superiority.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot about you banning people from your home the moment they insult _Hogwarts_…" Daisy added.

"That's because those people need God." Sasha replied, seriously. "And anyway, I had a lot of fun this summer. Relaxing, reading, writing, and um, relaxing…"

"Mhm. No boys then?" Lola teased. Sasha rolled her eyes, before closing them slowly and yawning.

"Nope - no boys, just chocolate." Sasha grinned, resting her head softly against her pillow.

"The way to be." Daisy smiled, in agreement. The three of them were silent before Lola spoke up again.

"You know, I still want to hear a good horror story…or at least _do _something scary…" Lola began, her voice drifting off slightly and dripping with devious mischief.

"Lola, we're not getting a Ouija board. That shit is fucked up big time." Daisy replied, beginning to close her eyes too as fatigue began to get the better of her. Not listening the collective shrieks of her friends whilst hitting them with a pillow, Lola grimaced.

"Not a Ouija board! Something more…realistic - something that works." Lola grinned. Sitting up softly, Sasha sighed.

"Like what?" The girl asked, leaning on her arms with her head tilted to one side. Her piles of long, gold-brown waves were drawn back into a ponytail by a navy-blue ribbon, some shorter tresses of hair curling around her chin while her side-fringe fell into her face. Her topaz eyes threatened to close again as she yawned, and her pink cheeks grew red from the heat of the lamps inside the layered fort.

"Well…your parents aren't home, right?" Lola questioned. Sasha hesitantly nodded, unsure of the girl's logic.

"Yeah, they're away till I go back to school, business stuff. Why does that matter?" Sasha murmured. Lola squealed, making Daisy's tired form flinch.

"Perfect! Apparently it doesn't work if there's energy in the house from more than three people…" Lola murmured, looking thoughtful.

"When what works?!" Daisy and Sasha asked at the same time, half confused and half horrified. Daisy, who was now awake and alert more than ever, was terrified of whatever insane antics Lola had thought of.

"It's obvious, isn't it? We perform a séance." Lola responded, bluntly, climbing out of the fort and skipping across the room. Daisy and Sasha shared a look of horror before clambering out of the fort as quickly as they could, making the sheets collapse slightly and the bed-side lamp behind it silhouette the books and pillows inside.

"Lo_la_," Sasha groaned, extenuating both syllables with a tired annoyance as the short girl jumped up and down, "We are not performing a séance! Especially not in _my_ room! Who knows what could torment me when the two of you leave, and I have a whole seven days to go alone in this old house!"

"I have to side with Sasha on this one, Lo," Daisy complained, crossing her arms and smoothing over the goose bumps on her skin as the breeze from the open windows grew stronger, "I mean we don't want to anger any spirits."

"Superstitious, are we?" Lola teased.

"Yes, actually, I am! Look, if you want to watch a horror film, go for it, but no bloody spirit-summoning!" Sasha dictated, thrashing a pointed finger at the girl with furrowed brows. Lola just laughed.

"Oh come on Sash, you love all that witchy stuff! Don't think of it as waking the dead, think of it as…_alerting _them of our presence." Lola beamed.

"I'm sure they are more than aware we exist. And I am so not into all that witchy stuff!" Sasha retaliated, crossing her arms. Lola gestured to the _Harry Potter_ books across the girl's floor, and Sasha rolled her eyes, bent down, and collected them into a neat pile and placed them on the floor board next to her feet.

"That's different, they're just books." Sasha reminded the short-legged, olive-skinned girl who wore a menacing grin.

"It probably wouldn't work anyway to be honest," Daisy murmured to Sasha, placing a hand to her shoulder, "I mean if it's something Lola found it's probably faux."

"I can hear you!" Lola snapped, but the two others ignored her mini tantrum.

"You're not…actually considering this?" Sasha bickered, placing her hands firmly on her usually reasonable best-friend.

"Oh come on! There's no such thing as spirits! Besides, we haven't seen each other in weeks. It'll be fun to do something different." Daisy smiled softly, making Lola give a shriek of jovial glee. Sasha shook her head, indignantly.

"No. Different can mean dangerous, and you're not the ones who live here." Sasha replied.

"Oh come on Sash, where's the Gryffindor bravery?" Lola teased, flicking the girl's cheek softly making Sasha recoil, angrily. Knowing she'd hit a soft spot, Lola gave the girl a smug grin.

"Oh….fine, but I can't for the life of me figure out why you'd even want to do this!" Sasha complained. Sitting down besides the pile of her favourite novels, Sasha wondered for a moment if Hermione had ever had to put up with something as ridiculous as a séance, and she took comfort in thoughts of her favourite novels as she took a seat.

"Yay! Okay then - sit down and hold hands!" Lola ordered, her tone becoming suddenly strict and teacher-like.

"Yes, your highness." Daisy mocked, slowly crossing her legs and sitting herself on the oak-wood floor boards besides Sasha. Lola plopped down with a laugh, stretched out her hands and tilted her head to both sides before beaming. Sasha just sighed.

"So, before we begin, I'd like to remind you all that when performing a séance, you can't think of anything other than the light in front of you." As she said this, Lola removed a small book light from the fort covers and tossed it into the middle of the circle.

"Can you give me something to put the book light on? It needs to be at eye-contact with all of us." Lola ordered Sasha. Narrowing her golden-brown eyes slightly in doubt, the girl just shook her head.

"How do you know all this?"

"No questions! Just do it!" Disliking her friend's demanding tone, Sasha rolled her eyes once more and turned next to her. Noticing the stack of _Harry Potter_ books by her feet, she grinned and placed them in the middle of the circle, balancing the lamp on top so it met with all of their gazes. Craning her neck slightly due to her height, Sasha was pleased to see the flat book lamp now reflected perfectly at all of them. Wincing slightly from the blinding thing, Sasha clicked her tongue with annoyance as she shut her eyes.

"Always has to be a HP reference somewhere…" Daisy mumbled with her grey eyes closed. Sasha clenched the girl's hand tightly from where hers was held and Daisy gave a loud 'ow' in response, making Lola hush them both.

"Okay then. Now that's eye contact, focus on the light." Lola said, in a quieter tone. Opening their eyes, Sasha and Daisy looked into the glimmer of the book lamp from upon the stack of books. Lola was looking at it too, and her hands were entwined with both Daisy's and Sasha's, both of which were now eager to learn how the whole thing would conclude.

"Now, think of nothing except the blinding light. Play over the glimmer of it in your mind. Think about pure, white light until nothing else resides inside your head. Just…breathe."

Following the sobering voice of Lola, Sasha let her mind become a vacant abyss. It was difficult at first, removing all her thoughts from her mind and tipping them into a mental trash can. Thinking about light made her think about lamps, book lamps, books, _Harry Potter – _shaking her head, Sasha inhaled and focused purely on nothing but a blank canvas.

"Now, if you're there, speak to us, spirit." Lola said. Despite the typicality of it, Sasha couldn't even muster a laugh at the dramatic girl. In fact, all three of them were sticking to their orders of silence as they inhaled and exhaled at a slow and steady pace, until suddenly there was a bang, making all three girls scream and tighten their grips on each other's hands.

"OH MY FUCKING GOD!"

"WHAT IN THE HELL WAS—"

"WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE!"

Jumping up off the ground and knocking the book stack to the ground, the girl's all looked at each other with looks of dread and fear.

"I…I heard the bang come from the kitchen!" Daisy snapped.

"Me… Me too." Sasha said, breathing heavily, releasing Daisy's and Lola's grips. Lola's eyes looked full of terrified tears, the usual aftermath of Lola scaring herself silly and Daisy was an unusually sickly pale. Biting her lip and calming her raising chest with the flat of her hand, Sasha stepped toward the door as she steadied her beating heart.

"I'll go check on downstairs; I mean it's my house after all. You guys…you guys just scream if anything else happens, okay?" Sasha asked, scratching the small of her neck with uncertainty.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Lola screeched.

"IT WAS YOUR STUPID IDEA!" Sasha responded, exasperated.

"Calm down! Sasha, I'll go downstairs with you. Whatever it is, it can't be good." Daisy murmured, always the voice of reason. Lola spluttered in utter horror.

"And leave me? NO WAY! AND I AM NOT GOING DOWNSTAIRS! NO WAY IN HELL!" Lola snapped. Sasha pushed Daisy towards Lola and sighed.

"Look, let me go down, Daisy. I'm not scared. I'll be fine. I was just shocked but I'm okay now. And maybe this will teach you, Lola, to not go doing crazy shit like this! You'll be the death of us, seriously." Sasha groaned, opening the door before they could insist upon anything else.

Flicking on the landing switch, Sasha gave a cautious look around the corridor. She could hear Daisy and Lola speaking to each other in a non-stop, terrified chatter and she was thankful not to have dragged them both downstairs. Sasha wasn't scared of the dark, but she disliked insecurity. Whatever was downstairs was in the house now, so she may as well get rid of it and protect her friends while she could.

"Oh god, why did I have to play the hero?" Sasha whispered, slowly edging herself downstairs as her queasy feelings intensified. It grew colder with every step she took, and she wrapped her arms around herself, regretting wearing only a pale blue vest top and checked grey shorts to bed. Barefoot and alone, she traced her hand across the banister and slowly felt anxious bubbles rise in her chest, making her stomach churn. Realising she couldn't turn back now, she opened the door to the empty living room which lead to the kitchen. Suddenly realising what was happening, Sasha paused outside the door, allowing her bravery to re-build before her hand wrapped around the brass door-handle while she pushed forward, venturing further.

With another turn of the switch, Sasha felt a wash over of relief when she realised she had made it downstairs in once piece. Not bothering to close the door, she crept into the dark kitchen, praying it was empty of lunatics and child-snatchers.

"Oh god, please don't be a rapist, or murderer, or terrorist…" Sasha hissed under her breath as she bit her lip and approached the kitchen doorframe. Hitting the light switch on instantly, Sasha looked around quickly and checked everything was in order.

Nothing – not a single knife or fork – was out of place. The honey jar remained on the counter, several pots and pans remained unwashed, and there were no hooded figures in sight, only her father's gardening jacket and her mother's baking apron.

"Thank god for that…" Sasha sighed, leaning against the kitchen counter, relief drowning out her anxiety and she rubbed her temples.

Just when she thought she was completely safe, Sasha noticed that from where she was stood near the kitchen window she could see into the garden. And into the garden she could see a big, black dog among the masses of leaves and hedges.

"I don't have a dog," Sasha reminded herself with terror, "But then…whose dog is that?!"

Feeling panic rise inside of her once more, the dog barked loudly. It had a set of deep brown eyes and Sasha gasped at its ferocious bark as she looked long and hard at it in the garden.

"What the hell…" The leggy teenager muttered, looking into the garden further with squinted eyes.

The dog barked again, and Sasha noticed just how_ big_ it was as it's velvety, black fur glimmered under the light of the neighbours fairy-lights that were decked along the trees. Sasha gulped back the adrenaline-ridden bile in her throat and opened the kitchen window.

"Shoo, shoo!" The girl called, "This isn't your home! Someone's probably looking for you so shoo, shoo!" The dog did nothing for a moment before slowly it began to trot along toward the house. Eyes wide in panic as the size of the dog just seemed to get bigger, Sasha shut the window, flicked the light switch and ran up the stairs in a clambering state of panic and horror back to her bedroom.

"What was it?!" Both Daisy and Lola were wrapped up in blankets on top of the blow-up mattress by the fallen fort with looks of intrigue and horror evident on both their faces. Realising she'd just trouble them more with the truth, Sasha gave an uneasy smile and a weak laugh, her racing heart setteling slowly.

"It was just the cat from next door climbing over the fence. It wasn't even that big really, nothing to worry about." Sasha lied, plainly, rushing over to them and wrapping herself in a blanket.

"So no escaped criminals or axe-killers?" Daisy urged, making Lola shriek.

"No! No, no…just a cat." Sasha assured the, biting her lip.

"Oh…I feel stupid now." Lola admitted. Sasha felt bad not telling them the truth – there _had_ been a bang from the kitchen which could not have come from the dog... Biting her lip harder with anxiety, Sasha crossed her arms and thought for a moment as Daisy complained.

"You _should_ feel stupid, Lola! Performing a bloody séance at midnight…everyone knows it's the witching hour! Bloody scared my pants off…" Daisy snapped, her voice unusually angry, probably from being so tired.

"I-I'm sorry, I just read something about it and…you know what? Never mind. It didn't even work so just everyone shut the hell up!" Lola snapped, getting comfy on the blow-up mattress beneath the blankets and looking away from the girls ignorantly. Daisy threw her hands up in surrender and began to snuggle down herself.

"Fine. Goodnight everyone." Daisy said, grumpily. Sasha looked down and gave the girl a quick hug.

"Night, Dais." She murmured, half-heartedly.

Deciding she wouldn't get to sleep without some comfort from her favourite books, Sasha stepped out of the covers and picked up her favourite _Harry Potter_ book, the _Prisoner of Azkaban_. Smiling with relief, the girl began to flick through the book until she found a part which made her eyes go wide and her breath hitch in her throat. Fingers underlining the text, Sasha gulped.

"_The giant, spectral dog that haunts the churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen – the worst omen – of _death_!"_

Something inside of Sasha snapped at that moment. The last of her sceptical-minded, human ignorance seemed to diminish at the probability that she could have in fact just seen…

"The grim," Sasha muttered, "But the grim in the book referred to…Sirius Black."

Feeling every part of her body freeze up, Sasha's eyes went wide and pulsed with shock. Suddenly, alerting her senses, she charged downstairs and stumbled down back to the kitchen, prepared to look over the insanely large dog and see if it marked any ominous significance.

"Come on then, Grim! Show yourself! I'm not afraid!" Sasha exclaimed from where she resided in the kitchen. Looking out the window to the garden, she furrowed her brows, seeing no trace of the dog at all. Waiting for a good five minutes with clenched fists, Sasha narrowed her eyes before sighing and shaking her head, her tight muscles relaxing and her glare softening.

"The Grim," Sasha muttered with a laugh, looking down at the book between her palms, "What was I _thinking_?"

With that said, Sasha smiled with relief, laughing to herself at her own childish assumptions before tossing the book onto the kitchen counter. Stepping out of the room, Sasha looked back into the kitchen briefly before shutting out the lights and exiting the room, closing the door behind her with a sharp bang.

But somewhere in the kitchen, a figure emerged – shrouded in black shadows - with a large, black dog by his side.

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**Soooo, I got this idea from a sleepover I had (believe it or not!) and I had to write it down! This is my second HP fanfic because my first one didn't exactly work out, and I hope this was enjoyed a lot more! Voila! **

**By the way, there**_** will**_** be Harry Potter characters in the next few chapters! I know this seemed a bit OC-centric, but that will change! I hope you think Sasha's an okay character, I based her on someone I know so I've tried to make her as realistic as I can.**

**Oh, and a mention to the first reviewer who can guess what significance the figure and dog might have…or who they could be;)**

**Oh! And the Buddhist story at the beginning was told to me by someone so I apologise if it's inauthentic to the original, and also the story itself WILL possess some significance later…**

**All the best,**

**r.m.t.b**


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